Coalition takes Brazil to the forefront in soy technology – Interview with Fernando Prudente, Bayer

Date:03-13-2023

During the launch of the Soy Innovation Club in Brazil, AgroPages had the opportunity to speak, with exclusivity, with Fernando Prudente, director of the soy and cotton business at Bayer's agricultural division.

In this interview, he talks about the goals of this coalition and the plans for the future of soy in Brazil. Check out:

What is the Soy Innovation Club, and what are its objectives?

The Soy Innovation Club, recently launched, aims to promote a coalition of the main stakeholders, the main links in the soy chain in Brazil. Briefly, the objective of this group is to defend and encourage the use of technology, innovation and sustainability in soybean cultivation in Brazil. This was Bayer’s initiative, in the sense that we had already been interacting to overcome all the challenges that soy had so far. The initiative is precisely to create a structure and to continue doing this in a structured way.

How will the group that integrates this coalition be formed?

We got together to invite 130 people representing 48 entities, divided into 4 segments: we have producers, we have seedlings, there is the Brazilian government, and there is the industry. This group seeks partners and people interested in developing the soy culture. These 130 people represent almost all the decisions in soybean cultivation in Brazil.

When we look at the past, we see that critical decisions, such as the approval of the regulatory framework in Brazil, were passed by this group in the 90s, which is an example of the importance of these decisions. The regulatory framework was a decisive moment for companies to continue investing and bringing innovation to Brazil.

This year Brazil has several important issues to be decided. They are laws and decisions that will impact the image and agricultural business in Brazil. How can the club assist in this process?

This is another example: we have listed several challenges already there, such as the new law on cultivars, and the new law on chemicals, for example. There is also the opening of markets, and these are themes that, with the entire soy chain structured, we will have much more chance of obtaining better results and being prepared for new challenges. So, it is not just a challenge but a market opportunity that we see, opportunities for production, productivity, with this coalition working together.

What is the vision of the Soy Innovation Club for the foreign market?

When we talk about the soy chain, we have traders who are also there and, without a doubt, are an essential link that makes this bridge with the foreign market. When talking about the foreign market, we need to understand the needs of the world market. Imagine the demand of the European consumer, which is different from the North American one, which is different from the Asian one. So this understanding is going to generate trips to the countries of interest, to understand this consumer who is more and more demanding every day. The idea is to continue seeking the best for the soy chain, innovation, technology and sustainability.

China has recently revised a series of positions, especially concerning biotechnology, it is opening up to biotechnology, so it is a field of opportunities. Undoubtedly, Bayer is a company already present there in other businesses. Still, without a doubt, not only Bayer, any company where you have legal security and defense of intellectual property is an excellent market in which to operate.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)